Evelyn was an intense journaler, documenting stories and details down to how long it took her to produce a pound of butter. You know I love a good journaler!

Evelyn Cameron’s story and all of her works have only recently been discovered in a basement. All of a sudden, America has a beautiful photographic and journal record of this rare place and time in the badlands of Eastern Montana.

It also means my family has records we never knew before. Some of Evelyn Cameron’s photography includes my family!

Put my dad and me together for five minutes, and we’re bound to start yacking about Evelyn and our family story with elevated voices, arm gestures, and a great dash of hyperactivity. Martin expects it. So does my mom. And for some crazy reason, they patiently listen to us over and over.

This shot shows my great grandma and her students in 1907:

The second book I’m reading is one that’s got me kind of excited about applying more frontier living into our days (albeit it’s the more romantic, easily doable stuff compared to what true frontier women were doing. And I probably can’t get a pet wolf like one girl Evelyn photographed!).

Plus those of you who aren’t interested in the wild west photography will get even more excited about this one. It’s “The New American Homestead” by John H. Tullock. Wiley books gave it to me to review.

It’s the most comprehensive, organized book I’ve ever seen on how to live like a frontier gal without being in the frontier. (It offers plenty of tips for how to live sustainably in the city, too.)

I like to live simply; I live in rural America. I should probably know some of this stuff.

So I’m reading…

A guy down the road has goats. Another person has bees. One neighbor gave us hundreds of tomatoes last summer. But I don’t know anything about this stuff. How can I go around saying “howdy” while being entirely clueless about how to can jam? (We won’t even begin to discuss how black my green thumb is.)

I think this book is going to help me talk the talk. Then I’ll start the whole walking/applying. I can’t believe the scope of topics covered. (I’m pretty concerned about the noxious weeds that are taking over the landscape, so I started with the section on native plants first.)

Plus I checked: the book’s printed in the United States.

So there you have it! A dash of my pioneer and sustainability obsession. Do you have any secret DIY desires? Want to make yogurt with me when the hangar remodel is done? Raise your own chickens? Spend hours talking about Evelyn Cameron and the frontier life?! I could pull out the documentary…

5 lovely thoughts on “Living a Frontier Life”

my parents probably do most of the stuff in there already. and despite being raised to do things like have a garden full of veggies, have a compost, landscape appropriate to the environment, don’t over fertilize, that sort of thing, i don’t really do any of that now that i’ve got my own home and my own family. i think a big part of that is being so far removed from the ecosystem i grew up with. i have no idea what will grow in Florida. maybe i should do some research! we’ve been wanting to set up a compost, but we just need to get on it!

New American Homestead sounds like a good read. It’s great to see people embracing these skills again. Just think, maybe a relative of yours will someday unearth your trove of journals, Katie, and turn them into a book like the one about Evelyn Cameron.

oh wow, how amazing to have old photos of your family in print, you never need to worry about losing the precious photos either :) We started out on our dream to live the “Good life” 2 years ago, and we are loving it. Chooks, veggyplot, hopefully goats eventually, once we are finished the cottage and converting the old barns :)

Hello, Katie! Thanks so much for your kind words about The New American Homestead. Congratulations on the progress on your home. I can appreciate how tired you are at the end of the day, having done some remodeling and construction myself. I hope you continue to find the book useful as you develop the homestead of your dreams.
Thanks again,
John Tullock